This is all what happened in this quarterfinals of the II Mundialito de Clubes Beach Soccer:

Belchior pulls a rabbit out of his hat in the last minute to get Sporting into semifinals

Sporting Clube the Portugal ended up turning into a recurrent night mare for FC Barcelona. Again the same team, again at the same stage, the Lisboan denied the Catalan the chance of achieving a place amongst the best four. A brilliant bicycle kick by Belchior, with just 30 seconds to go, plus a finisher by Madjer, almost over the horn turned this first quarterfinal fixture into a green and white party.

The two teams faced again, with Sporting Portugal keeping whole credit after a brilliant way so far, and FC Barcelona proving to be a much more complete team than last edition. The match turned to be as balanced as expected, with Sporting hitting first, and Barcelona immediately replying… This is exactly how things went after Spacca’s opener and Shishin reply, or DDI’s 2-1 finding Eremeev counteract with the 2-2.

With the match heading for extra time, and everyone thinking on how to deal with that extra minutes, Belchior decided that the match could not end without his magical contribution. Seeing a ball fly across Barça’s box front-line, he run toward s it to blast an amazing overhead kick in, thundering it right to Bukhlitskiy’s goalmouth. That moment decided the whole game. FC Barcelona rushed towards Graça’s goal, trying to equalize the score in the remaining seconds, uncovering the defensive line, and the Lisboan took advantage of it with a fourth goal, by Madjer, that killed the ‘blaugrana’ expectations…

Boca Juniors and Lokomotiv Moscow got into an amusing fight trying to earn a place in semifinals of the II Mundialito de Clubes Beach Soccer. The 12-goal plus extra-time battle finally got onto the penalty shootout, with the Russian rolling on to next round after Gorchinskiy’s successful attempt. That was not the deserved ending for such a combative, spirited and intense team as Boca, but only one of them could roll on to semifinals, and it was the Muscovite.

Both sides reached the quarterfinals after a fairly different approach during the league stage. Whereas Lokomotiv had their berth more than virtually secured after their first two matches, the Argentinean had needed to fight their chances fiercely out in really tough games against Vasco da Gama and Santos. Having done such a terrific job, they regarded nothing else than getting amongst the best four as a satisfying end.

Indeed, they performed really well against a World Champions packed team, managing to be almost always ahead in the score. Bad news for them was that Leonov, Makarov and co. would never let them too far, subjecting them to a terrible pressure at any moment. All in all, every hit by the Argentinean was replied by a Russian one, fielding an amusing goal-battle until the last breath. 6-6 was the score when the referee blew the match over, and it did not move during the extra time, pointing to the penalty shootout definition.

From the 9.meter distance, Lokomotiv proved to bank on a better accuracy, as neither Leonov nor Gorchinsky missed their chances. Things were not that well for Boca, as despite Fred’s success, Larreta’s attempt hit the post and went wide, definitely closing the doors for Boca.

Flamengo bagged the first paulista-vs-carioca battle in the quarterfinals stage of the II Mundialito de Clubes Beach Soccer. Mainly thanks to a excellent performance by key man Anderson and current MVP award-holder Pampero, responsible for five of the goals by Fla today. By the time Santos tried to react, it was already too late…

When the ‘rubronegro’ side managed to get 0-4 ahead, with Anderson hitting three times and teammate Pampero bagging his first of today, everything pointed to a pleasant go-through for the Rio squad. But Santos could not give up without fighting, and got down to business to, at least, made their opponents suffer for a place in next round.

A third-time wake up was not enough for the Peixe side, though. At that moment, Flamengo had things quite much under control and, despite getting really close to their opponent, thanks to Ricar (2) and Sidney, Santos could not make the last step for the equalizer. Instead, it was the carioca side the ones to open the gap wide again, with Pampero and Mena having things 3-6 and securing berth amongst the best four sides of the tournament.

Vasco da Gama wanted to contribute to the ruining of the Paulista evening, and snatched Corinthians the second berth at the II Mundialito de Clubes semifinals. Just one goal, by Catarino, ended up giving the Gigante da Colina the ticket to the best-4 stage, denying the Timão and their wonderful crowd the chance of seeing themselves on at the competition.

Corinthians regarded today’s match as the chance of definitely forgetting their bitter memories of last year, in which, again Vasco da Gama, blocked them the door to semifinals. The match’s atmosphere was tough, dense, as Vasco da Gama, who had been needing to fight until their last breath to get here, would not stop their battle up to that point. Indeed, they were the ones to open the score, right at the very last breath of the first period, through Catarino.

There was, though, plenty of time for Corinthians to fight that advantage back, as two full periods is time enough to do so. But minutes began falling, unstoppably, and Soares’ lads found no way to harm Salgueiro’s dominions. In a terribly controversial last minute, André took a free kick and hit the post, and he himself kicked the ball after the rebound, without noticing that no one had touched the ball before. Although the ball ended at the back of Vasco’s nets, the goal could not be given, as Corinthians’ number ten had committed an irregularity. Amid a big bitterness by the paulista players and fans, Vasco clinched a place in next round, and are to take on city rivals Flamengo for a place in the Mundialito’s final, just as happened last year.